ROB MARIANOOdds: 3 to 1 Pro: "He is the strongest physical player out there," says Alicia. Con: "He treated us like dirt," says Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien. "It was like playing against my ex, who's a maniac."

JENNA LEWISOdds: 6 to 1 Pro: "She has Rupert under her spell," says Shii Ann. Con: "Most of us found her insufferable," says Lex.

Host Jeff Probst calls this "the most personal season ever" as evidenced by Rob and Amber's budding personal relationship – and unleashing their dastardly plot to destroy their castmates.

"I think Rob and Amber started as a tentative alliance," Probst tells PEOPLE, "and then I think they started to realize that maybe they could trust each other with this alliance and from there, the flirting, from what I could see, the flirting eased into an authentic relationship."

"You couldn't drive a nail between them," adds castoff Alicia Calaway (whose handshake alliance with Rob proved worthless). "If you have a person out there who you love and trust, you have an advantage."

Of course, everyone on "All-Stars" was supposed to have had the advantage of having played before, although that proved no guarantee against mistakes.

Even master strategist Lex van den Berghe, the man ultimately doomed by the alliance of Rob and Amber, "made the single biggest mistake in 'Survivor' history," says Probst – not voting Amber off as a favor to pal Boston Rob.

"He came to me as a friend and I dropped my guard," says Lex, summarily betrayed by Rob. "He's a good player but a lousy friend."

Not that it was all bliss and back-stabbing: previous winner Jenna Morasca left midseason to be with her ailing mother, who died days later, while truck driver Susan Hawk, traumatized after rubbing against naked Rich during a challenge, also quit. (She's now having her extreme makeover chronicled by TV's Extra.)